MAY 2017
GETTING ON WITH THE JOB RICK KELLY
TEAM OWNER & DRIVER #15 SENGLED RACING | NISSAN ALTIMA
“CASTROL HAS LONG PLAYED A MAJOR ROLE IN THE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE TEAM AND ITS LUBRICANTS, AND IT’S GREAT TO TAKE THIS PARTNERSHIP TO A NEW LEVEL THIS YEAR.” - RICK KELLY CastrolRacingAU
castroledge.com.au
@CastrolRacingAU
CastrolRacingAU
CONTENTS Castrol-backed Prodrive Racing wins in Supercars
Pages 4-5
castrol-backed Renault F1 score points in Russia
Page 6
Australian Kart Championships off to an exciting start
Pages 8-9
Castrol Premiere - The Fate of the Furious Gallery
Pages 10-11
Titanium Trials: TITANIUM ICE
Page 12
MOTOGP: Castrol LCR Honda 4th in Austin
Page 13
INDYCAR: Rossi 5th at Barber
Page 13
WTCC: Castrol Volvo Superior in Monza
Page 14
BTCC: Triple Eight shows improvement in Donington
Page 15
TRUCKS: Castrol extends deal
Page 15
Castrol Tech Talk
Page 16
Happy 100th Birthday
Page 7
PAGE 4: MOSTERT IS BACK
PAGE 3
CASTROL-BACKED PRODRIVE RACING WINS IN SUPERCARS AUTHOR: CASTROL AUSTRALIA
Castrol-backed Prodrive Racing Australia’s Chaz Mostert has taken his first win since August 2015 in Race 6 of the Supercars Championship at the Phillip Island 500.
Australia Supercars Championship, while Winterbottom is in eighth place, behind fellow Prodrive Racing teammate Cameron Waters.
Mostert and Castrol teammate Mark Winterbottom took home a one-two finish in an impressive race, holding on to their tyres in a final stint of over 30 laps.
Castrol-backed Cameron Waters has had an impressive start to his 2017 campaign, finishing inside the top 10 for all races except one (Race 5, Phillip Island) following a tyre blow-out and pit lane infringement.
It marked a return to the top of the Championship podium for Mostert, his first Championship race win in 609 days and Supercheap Auto’s last win since 2005. It also marked the first victory for Prodrive Racing and Castrol in 2017. Mostert now sits third in the Virgin
Fellow Castrol-backed squad, Nissan Motorsport is being led by Michael Caruso in the #23 Altima, sitting 12th in the overall Championship point standings. Nissan teammates Todd Kelly is a further
four places back in 16th, while brother Rick Kelly, is in 17th, 262 points adrift the Championship leader. Rick Kelly had a difficult month after being involved in one of the worst Supercars crashes in history at Symmons Plains involving 12 cars. Damage to the #15 car eventually resulted in the car being written off and the former Bathurst 1000 winner moving to an older chassis. Simona de Silvestro, the first ever full time female driver to compete in the Championship, recently capped off her Phillip Island campaign with a pair of personal best race results. Narrowly missing out on a top 10 finish
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in Saturday’s 250km race, de Silvestro ended Races 5 and 6 in a solid 13th place. De Silvestro now sits in 19th place in the Championship and only 33 points adrift of highly experienced teammate Rick Kelly. The youngest ever Supercars Championship driver and Castrol-backed Alex Rullo continues to impress in his debut year. At just 16 years old, Rullo was on target to score a top 10 finish in Race 5 before being hit by another car suffering a mechanical failure. Rullo sits in 26th place in the standings. The Supercars Championship moves onto Barbagallo Raceway in Perth, May 5-7, for Races 7 and 8 of the season.
2017 V8 SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP DRIVERS POINT STANDINGS AFTER RACE 6 1
Fabian Coulthard
568
2
Shane van Gisbergen
561
3
Chaz Mostert
531
4
Jamie Whincup
522
5
Scott McLaughlin
471
6
Garth Tander
444
7
Cameron Waters
427
8
Mark Winterbottom
417
9
Craig Lowndes
378
10
James Moffat
366
11
David Reynolds
360
12
Michael Caruso
357
13
Tim Slade
348
14
James Courtney
336
15
Lee Holdsworth
321
16
Todd Kelly
313
17
Rick Kelly
306
18
Scott Pye
297
19
Simona de Silvestro
273
20
Jason Bright
228
21
Nick Percat
210
22
Tim Blanchard
210
23
Dale Wood
173
24
Will Davison
150
25
Taz Douglas
144
26
Alex Rullo
105
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CASTROL-BACKED RENAULT F1 SCORE POINTS IN RUSSIA AUTHOR: CASTROL AUSTRALIA
Castrol-backed Renault Sport Formula One Team has secured its second points-scoring finish of 2017 with a robust eighth place from Nico Hülkenberg in the VTB Russian Grand Prix at the Sochi Autodrom. Nico started eighth then ran a mammoth 40-lap stint on his qualifying Ultrasort tyres before changing to the Supersoft tyres for a final 12-lap bid to wrestle seventh place from Esteban Ocon. Jolyon Palmer’s race ended at the second corner, the victim of an ambitious over-the-kerbs overtake attempt from Romain Grosjean.
Nico Hülkenberg, #27, R.S.17-02: Started P8, finished P8
Jolyon Palmer, #30, R.S.17-03: Started P16, DNF (accident)
“I’m really happy with the strategy we ran today; there wasn’t too much left from the tyres at the end of that first stint, but we achieved what we set out to do. I lost track position at the start so we let everyone else pit ahead of us and went as long as we could go on the first set of boots. I kept pushing and the car performed really well, staying switched on with the track improvement meaning I was able to get faster and faster. I was definitely happier with our race pace today; we’ve still got more work to do but we’ve clearly taken a step in the right direction this weekend.”
“I had a decent-enough start then heading down to Turn Two there was a Sauber on my outside then Romain made a very ambitious move over the kerbs on the inside from behind. There was no space for me to go because of the Sauber, so maybe Romain wasn’t aware of that, but he kept it in, hit me, then we were both out of the race. That was a shame for both of us really. I feel for my crew this weekend as they’ve worked so hard on the car, then we had such a short race. Now it’s reset, reload and look to Barcelona.”
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AUSTRALIAN KART CHAMPIONSHIPS OFF TO AN EXCITING START SUPPLIED BY KARTING AUSTRALIA
Ricciardo Kart pair Troy Loeskow and Jace Matthews have continued their winning ways in the 2017 Australian Kart Championship presented by Castrol EDGE and Jayco. Round 2 of the five-event Championship held in Geelong, Victoria, had a strong weekend of racing throughout each category, producing outstanding racing for the big crowd on hand and the online streaming. Loeskow’s second straight win in the KZ2 class came in a final that saw a Turn 1 incident claim no less than eight competitors. Starting from pole position he quickly established an advantage over Daniel Price and was able to maintain the gap right to the chequered flag, securing the win over the CRG driver. Aaron Cameron had been in the thick of the action aboard his JC Kart throughout the weekend and he salvaged a hard fought third placing with Jason Pringle finishing fourth and Series stalwart, Sam Houston gaining a career-best finish in fifth.
2011 Bathurst 1000 Champion, Nick Percat had an entertaining late race exchange with his Brad Jones Racing stablemate, Macauley Jones – with the battle of the Supercars drivers going the way of Jones after recovering from the Turn 1 melee. Continuing the good form of Ricciardo Kart in the Karting Australia Manufacturer’s Championship was Jace Matthews in KA1. Matthews backed up his Newcastle win to make it two on the trot since moving to seniors. KA1 was one of the more entertaining affairs over the weekend – whilst Matthews and defending Champion, Scott Sorensen were comfortable in first and second, third placed raged right to the end. It fell the way of Scuderia PCR driver, Kyle Henry-Smith, but it could have easily gone in many different directions. The second Ricciardo Kart of Thomas Steele, Ryan Sanderson’s Formula K
and Matthew Stenner’s Kosmic all had dalliances with the final step of the podium. In KA2, the elite junior category, a twokart battle was staged for the round win between defending Australian Champion Jack Doohan and Broc Feeney. Feeney led the majority of the race in his Kosmic before Doohan closed down and made the decisive move two laps from home. Christian Pancione in his FA Kart survived a late race surge from Jordyn Sinni to finish in third. KA3 Senior delivered the closest finish of the day with Leigh Nicolaou taking his Shamick Racing Arrow to victory by just a tenth of a second over Matthew McLean. Australian Champion McLean had to work hard to close the gap to Nicolaou and did so in the end, however it was the only race all weekend that
PAGE 8
McLean had been headed – those results keeping his Title defence well on track. New South Welshman Oscar Priest put a strong performance in to finish third. Joshua Car took a solid win in the TaG 125 category aboard his Comp Kart. The Sydneysider pushed hard to advance himself into the lead and had enough to outlast a surge by Queenslander Brendan Nelson. Nelson skipped ahead of a battle between Joshua Rogers and Paul Rodgers which lasted the entire 26-lap distance, which eventually fell the way of the latter. Nelson was again denied in the X30 final in what became a battle of the FA Karts. After leading early, he dropped to second behind South Australian Morgan Feast who took off at the front. Nelson’s biggest challenge came from West Australian Ben Harders – who also had a stint at the front of the pack. In the end, Feast led the FA Kart trifecta to take the second AKC round win of his
career over Nelson and Harders, with Car coming home in fourth. In KA4 Junior, Kai Allen played his role perfectly in waiting until the final moments to strike. Weekend long combatants, Cooper Webster and Jay Hanson were battling up front for the lead with Zac Crichton and Kacey Mann playing a supporting role with Allen. Allen was able to close the gap to Australian Champion Webster and Hanson and then waited for the opportunity to snare the lead, this led to a wild sequence of events on the run to the chequers where Allen took the wind by 1.5 seconds over Webster and Hanson with Mann and Crichton close behind. Cadet 9 provided a milestone moment for karting in Australia with the first graduate of the SP Tools Junior Sprockets program – Cadel Ambrose – taking the round win. It is the first time a ‘Sprocketeer’ has come through
for victory at an Australian Kart Championship round and he did it with style. He outlasted several challenges throughout the course of the race, the most potent from second placed finisher, Shamick Racing pilot, Harry Arnett and Toby Dvorak – who came home third. In Cadet 12, James Wharton was able to extend his points advantage in the Championship with a dominant victory. His Shamick Racing FA Kart took the win by 3.228 seconds over Fletcher Harris who was comfortably in front of Marcos Flack in third. It was in fact the biggest winning margin of the weekend in any category. The Australian Kart Championship, presented by Castrol EDGE and Jayco and delivered by Mercedes-Benz Vans now moves to Monarto (just outside Murray Bridge) in South Australia over the weekend of May 26-28.
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CASTROL PREMIERE - THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS GALLERY Thanks to all our customers, fans and guests who have attended our Castrol premiere of The Fate of The Furious in April. Over 3,000 people across Australia have experienced a money can’t buy experience with an exclusive screening of the latest Fast and Furious series thanks to Castrol. Together with our partners, from Nissan Motorsport to Speedcafe.com and leading retailers, we’ve given over 1,000 double movie passes through various social media and website promotions. Remember to keep tagging #CastrolEDGE #F8 with your photos of you experiencing this incredible movie.
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TITANIUM TRIALS: TITANIUM ICE In partnership with Universal Picture’s film, The Fate of the Furious, Castrol EDGE has created its most ambitious Titanium Trial ever: TITANIUM ICE. In a world-first stunt staged in the wild, icy landscape of the Yukon in Canada, Michelle Rodriguez, one of the stars of the Fast & Furious franchise, challenges her legendary stunt driver, Debbie Evans, and Evans’ Jaguar F-TYPE 5.0 Supercharged V8 R AWD - powered with the strength of Castrol EDGE - to compete against a mixed-reality army of military tanks, nuclear submarines, helicopters, missiles, explosions and shattering ice. TITANIUM ICE will offer Fast and Furious fans an exclusive taste of the stunning action from the newest chapter in one of the most popular and enduring motion-picture serials of all time. Watch how Castrol EDGE gives our stunt driver the extra confidence to push herself and her car to the limit in one of the most intense driving challenges yet! Castrol EDGE is Castrol’s strongest range of engine oils. TITANIUM ICE presented our stunt driver with one of the toughest challenges she’s ever faced - driving using mixed reality, and in one of the most extreme settings on the planet. Using Castrol EDGE gives you the confidence to push yourself and your car to the limit, whenever and wherever you need.
WATCH TITANIUM ICE NOW PAGE 12
MOTOGP: CASTROL LCR HONDA 4TH IN AUSTIN AUTHOR: CASTROL AUSTRALIA
Castrol-backed LCR Honda rider Cal Crutchlow followed up his podium finish in Argentina with a fine fourth-placed finish at the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin on Sunday. The Briton demonstrated his battling qualities once again with a superb ride in the MotoGP class to finish just outside the top three having departed from ninth place on the grid in Texas. Crutchlow made a great start to the race as he quickly moved through the field into sixth place and assumed fifth when championship leader Maverick ViĂąales crashed out on lap two. He was then involved in a thrilling battle with Johann Zarco and eventually got the better of the Frenchman on the final lap to claim fourth spot. Crutchlow now sits fifth in the World MotoGP points. MotoGP now heads to Jerez Spain, May 5-7, and France, May 19-21.
INDYCAR: ROSSI 5TH AT BARBER AUTHOR: CASTROL AUSTRALIA
Castrol-backed Alexander Rossi has finished fifth at Barber in his #98 Honda. Starting 18th, Rossi worked his way through the field thanks to a strong race strategy and quick pit stops. Rossi who now sits 10th in the championship standings, will now switch his focus to defending his Indianapolis 500 crown, heading to Indy for the course road on May 12-13 before the Indy 500 May 28.
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WTCC: CASTROL VOLVO SUPERIOR IN MONZA SUPPLIED BY WTCC VOLVO RACING
Castrol-backed Thed Björk has won the main race of the FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) weekend at Monza in style, elevating him to second position in the championship.
and I never doubted that I was going to win. The team is super-happy, they have done a great job and we did what we had to do this weekend,” said Thed Björk.
race with rear-right suspension damage. The Argentinian fought hard in the second race to snatch fifth place from Norbert Michelisz by a mere 0.001 seconds over the finishing line.
The four-time STCC champion won the race from pole position and set a new lap record to beat main rival and Honda driver Tiago Monteiro. The victory has reduced the championship lead gap to 15 points from 18 points ahead of the weekend for Björk to Monteiro.
Nicky Catsburg had a tough first race, dropping down to finish eighth as he sustained front splitter damage at the start of the race. The second race saw him finish fourth, a result meaning that he is third in the championship behind team-mate Thed Björk.
The WTCC weekend at legendary Monza in Italy brought Polestar Cyan Racing one pole position, a MAC3 victory, a new lap record at Monza and the main race victory, extending the lead over Honda in the manufacturers’ championship to 14 points.
“This was one of my best victories ever. I felt completely relaxed during the race
Néstor Girolami had a tough weekend, retiring from third position in the first
Next up is the WTCC Race of Hungary on May 13-14th.
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BTCC: TRIPLE EIGHT SHOWS IMPROVEMENT IN DONINGTON AUTHOR: CASTROL AUSTRALIA
There were signs of improvements for the Castrol-backed Triple Eight team at Donington Park in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC). Rain had threatened to disrupt proceedings all day, but it didn’t appear until the final race. A red flag put a hold on strong results for the MG duo following the opening lap, where several cars were unable to maintain control in the treacherous conditions. Aron Taylor-Smit and Daniel Lloyd were on target for top ten finishes before the weather conditions cost the team the points they arguably deserved. Taylor-Smit sits 17th in the BTCC standings while teammate Lloyd is 25th. The BTCC calendar moves onto Hampshire May 6-7 before heading to Cheshire May 20-21.
TRUCKS: CASTROL EXTENDS DEAL AUTHOR: CASTROL AUSTRALIA
Castrol India have announced its series sponsorship extension of the Tata Motors T1 Prima Truck Racing Championship, for a further period of three years until 2019. The 2017 championship will feature three classes; Super Class, Champion Class and Pro Class. Meanwhile, the Castrol Vecton Racing team will be headed by Ryan Smith in Truck 1 and Stephanie Halm in Truck 2. Stuart Oliver last won the T1 Prima Truck Racing Championship for Castrol Vecton Racing back in 2015.
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Advertorial
DAVID PURSER
CASTROL
ENGINUITY
ISSUE: E003-WKSHP
TECH TALK - EXPERT TO EXPERT
CASTROL TECHNICAL HELPLINE 1300 557 998
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If successful, the product is determined to fulfil all performance and warranty requirements and the manufacturer earns a formal ‘APPROVAL’, which may be displayed on package labels and product literature. Most OEMs publish controlled lists of oils they have approved, so workshops can identify which products are suitable for each vehicle. These approvals are especially important for cars under warranty, as the first question in a warranty claim is often “did you use an OEM approved lubricant”. OEM APPROVED OILS ARE CRUCIAL FOR WARRANTY OEM specifications and approvals can apply to transmission and axle lubricants as well as engine coolants, which increases the complexity in the car maintenance field. It makes sense that a car’s lubrication requirements are best understood by the engineers who designed it. An oil with formal OEM approval has been tested in the same hardware and components built into that car. It protects the vehicle warranty and may be a requirement to make sure the vehicle meets its fuel economy, service life and emission expectations. This can be especially important as the oil ages and is no longer “as new”. If a vehicle needs an OEM approved product to maintain warranty, this is generally stated in the owner’s manual. IS THERE A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN OIL THAT CARRIES A FORMAL OEM APPROVAL AND AN OIL THAT CLAIMS TO “MEET THE REQUIREMENTS” OF AN OEM STANDARD? The answer is most certainly yes! An ‘APPROVAL’ demonstrates the manufacturer has taken the time and effort to design and formulate a product to an exacting set of standards, then invested in its testing and qualification. All car manufacturers open the approval process to any oil manufacturer who is willing to submit their product and pay for the test program. Protection at this level clearly comes at a price, frequently it is only a full synthetic lubricant that can pass these tests. A claim on a package label or product bulletin that an oil “meets the requirements” of a standard or specification is a much weaker indicator of performance and is based mainly on the oil manufacturer’s own judgement. FOR WARRANTY PURPOSES SUCH A CLAIM IS UNLIKELY TO BE SUFFICIENT PROOF OF THE OIL’S SUITABILITY. TO ENSURE YOUR WORKSHOP & CUSTOMERS WARRANTY ARE PROTECTED, CONTACT CASTROL FOR AN EXPERT ASSESSMENT OF YOUR LUBRICANT REQUIREMENTS - CASTROL TECHNICAL HELPLINE 1300 557 998
HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY! Bayford Ford are celebrating 100 years of operations this year. They’ve been a long and loyal customer of Castrol as well as Prodrive Racing partner in the Supercars Championship. One of Australia’s oldest dealerships, Bayford were a joint bonnet partner on Chaz Mostert’s Ford Falcon that took victory in Race 6 of the Supercars Championship.
On behalf of Castrol, happy birthday to the team at Bayford Ford! PAGE 17